It Takes One To Know One (Part II)
by holyjareau
Summary: SEQUEL TO '200 (Part I)' - Following the events of 200, JJ is having a little trouble adjusting back to her normal life. The team has become increasingly nervous with the way she's been acting. Will the team be able to help her through her trials, or will she fall victim to an irredeemable downward spiral?
1. Indifferently Different

**CHAPTER 1**

They worry about her – something is different about her, but none of them have the guts to confront her about it… Not _just_ yet, anyway.

But something is definitely wrong.

They keep a close eye on her, however, it seems excessive; she _is_ a profiler after all – she knows just exactly when they creep behind to keep watch over her, or even watch her from afar.

She knows they overcompensate – they hug her, hold her, and ask her questions about how she's doing. She doesn't seem to show annoyance or irritability, however, there is no warmth or depth in reciprocating to their advances.

She knows they have been watching her every move. She knows they are just checking to see if she is on the verge of breaking.

But she's already broken.

They strenuously observe her as she continues on with her paperwork. It makes them nervous, seeing how quiet she's become. Yet, she is still effective at her job – completing the paperwork, inserting her input during a case or profile. But other than that, she makes no effort to communicate with anyone – she only responds when she has to.

When she comes home from work, she drops her bags and belongings onto the floor, and lies on the couch. She stares at the ceiling until she loses the strength to battle unconsciousness.

Initially, she had cried into Will's arms before passing out; but since then he'd been back to working night shifts, leaving her with no shoulder to cry on.

So she stares at the ceiling and thinks of nothing as she falls asleep, until a nightmare forces her awake.

The nightmares are unrelenting – Iraq, the abduction, the torture, the tormenting hallucinations… They're so real; so vivid…

They terrify and torment her; night after endless night.

Yet she refuses to tell anyone about it.

In the morning, she is up earlier than her alarm. She arrives to work earlier than the others, but she looks rather drained; weary. The way she acts, the way she interacts with the others…

It is disheartening.

They ask her if she is okay, or if she is doing all right; to which she responds. However, she never forms more than a sentence when she is summoned to speak. And when she does speak, the intonation in her voice maintains a low, monotonic pitch to it. She doesn't smile – or even tries to fake one in that matter. When they make advances such as hugging, she reciprocates them in a cold and distant manner.

They notice that she never seems to take her eyes off her cellphone – it is unlikely that she receives messages or calls every minute; she just stares at the lock screen for minutes on end.

Soon they realize she stares at the clock on her phone.

She counts the seconds, minutes, and hours – she counts down how long she's made it since the day of her abduction.

They realize she has developed paranoia.

_She is already broken. _

The doctors had warned them about the very high chance of her developing PTSD, depression, or paranoia, but did not expect her to develop _all three._

Now they are extremely worried.

Yet, the way she deals with it is… Different.

She does not act broken, no. But the act she displays on a daily basis is much worse than that.

She is dead on the inside.

* * *

AN: Hmm. How are you guys liking present tense? I'm not really feeling it haha. We'll see how the next chapter works out.  
AN2: BY THE WAY, if any of you who are reading this are new, you must must must read the first story, **200 (Part I)**, in order for this whole story to make sense! Thanks again!


	2. Broken

**CHAPTER 2**

**5 FEBRUARY 2014 – JJ, UNDISCLOSED LOCATION**

_Her head violently snaps to the side, following the quick impact of his fist with her face. She is slow to recover, but manages to stare him back in the eyes._

"_Always so stubborn." He pauses, and circles around her. _

"_Go to hell," she spits. He backhands her across the face, and her head lulls down._

"_Gladly."_

_He calmly walks over to the metal table displaying the multiple vials of military grade hallucinogens, incapacitating agents, neurotoxins, and syringes. He grabs a black hood from the table, duct tape, as well as a syringe and a neurotoxin. He makes his way toward her._

"_No, no, no…" she pleads, as he creeps closer and closer, inserting the needle into the vial. She attempts to pull away from him, but is relatively unsuccessful as he forcefully places the tape on her mouth and around her head, looping it three times to secure its place. He puts the black hood over her head, and injects the syringe into her neck. The initial pinch of the needle startles her, as the drug begins to take its effect. The hallucinogen successfully kicks in, and she finds herself trapped in her worst nightmare._

"_Enjoy, JJ." He ruefully grins, before throwing the syringe and empty vial to the ground, along with the other empty vials and discarded syringes._

_She is unable to see anything, but darkness. Her breathing begins to spike, and she pants, struggling for breath. She feels her heart racing, to the point where it becomes awfully painful to breathe. She feels the sweat beading down her face and neck, as it is becomes uncomfortably hot in the room._

_She begins hearing voices – voices that are eerily familiar. She cannot make out what they are saying, as the voices all overlap each other. _

_Her vision begins to come around, as the toxin has done its job. She begins seeing things, even under the darkness of the hood._

_Her eyes dart around the scene, desperately seeking the faces that the voices belong to. _

_But there is no one in sight._

_At first, she was well aware that she had been hallucinating, but with the increased dosages and multiple drugs injected into her system, it became increasingly difficult to differentiate between the nightmares and reality. The hallucinations have become stronger and much worse._

_They emotionally drain her._

_This hallucinogen – it pinpoints the part of her brain that keeps her worst fears and nightmares hidden, and exposes them, taking her to a place somewhere she fears the most; the effect of the drug induces her worst nightmares into a reality. She is forced to watch them, and is helpless to stop it. She cannot fight it – so she endures them._

_However, this one is different. The presence in this one feels much darker, heavier. She finds herself lost in a dark forest of shadows._

_She waits for another one of her hallucinations to come and torment her, but nothing shows. The voices continue to whisper overtop of each other, and she becomes desperate to know what's going on. She wonders if she's developed a resistance to the worst effect of the toxin, but is instantly mistaken, as she sees a masked figure emerge from the shadows of the woods. _

_Dark shadows begin to lurk around – they terrify her. The shadows emerge from behind the trees, turning into three-dimensional figures. Soon, they occupy the shapes of enemies from her time at the department, and the souls of all the people she'd killed and gotten killed during. They take the form of half-human-half-demon. Their eyes hold a vibrant, red tint. She flinches, as they creep closer and closer toward her, following the first masked figure._

_It seems that this masked figure is the leader. It inches nearer and nearer to her position in the hallucination._

_She shuts her eyes, hoping they will all go away, but is unsuccessful; she is trapped in this nightmare._

_The voices and murmurs become horrifyingly louder and louder, and soon, she is able to make out what each of the voices is saying:_

"_This is all your fault,"_

"_Look what you've done!"_

"_Look at the mess you've made,"_

"_You did all of this! You!"_

_These voices threaten her, and with each audible sentence that she is able to make out, it seems as if she's being stabbed through her chest, weakening her soul._

_The whispers and murmurs continue to torment her, and rip through her soul. She cries for help, but there is no one to help her._

_Suddenly, gunshots ring from behind her, and her team emerges from the back. They fight off the shadows and figures that came out to get her. However, she is caught in the crossfire, and is completely helpless. _

_They seem to be doing all right; they take out every single shadow that had been tormenting her, until the first masked figure begins coming around to each and every one of the team members._

_Her heart begins to pound, as she helplessly watches Spencer being kicked to the ground and executed by this masked figure. _

_She tries to yell, but her cries are muffled due to the tape. She if forced to continue watching._

_Derek sprints over to Spencer's dead body, but is instantly shot down and killed by the same figure. _

_She cries out for help – but it is useless; no one can hear her scream._

_The rest of the team begins to fall victim to this figure __– first Alex, then David, then Emily, and Penelope. _She continues observing, as her own teammates continue to die in front of her. The guilt eats her alive, as she stares at the bodies of her dead friends.

_Aaron is the last – he is not dead yet. He slowly crawls up to her, pleading for her to end his life for him. Tears threaten to fall from her face, seeing the absolute dread in his eyes._

"_JJ, why?" he begs, as the masked figure finishes him off._

_She breaks into tears._

_The shadowy silhouette begins walking away, toward a trap door on the ground. It pulls Will and Henry out of the ground, both looking a little beaten up. Her heart is instantly shattered, as this monster walks behind them, first shooting Will in the head. _

_A violent sob erupts from her lips as she watches the love of her life fall limply to the ground. _

_She fears the worst, as the silhouette makes its way toward her son – the single, most important person in her life. He tears up, silently pleading for his life, as he stares into his mother's eyes one last time, saying mommy, please don't do this to me…_

_A loud bang erupts from the gun, and her son's body falls to the ground._

_She screams and shouts at the silhouette, cursing and threatening to kill it. But it's ineffective – it doesn't listen to her._

_It creeps toward her, holding up a familiar glock 26, removing the silencer. She struggles against her binds, as she is scared of what this hallucination may do to her._

_The figure removes the mask, revealing…_

… _Herself._

_She horrifyingly stares into the eyes of herself – her own hallucination, and fearfully observes her._

_Her eyes have lost the blue tint – reduced to a dark grey. There are two evident, light pink scars on her face: one that runs underneath her left eye, stretching all the way to her nose, and another lining her brow; they look exactly like the injuries on her face right…Now. Her blonde hair has lost its vibrant colour – reduced to a dull brown. It seems that this is a villainous version of herself._

No…_ she mumbles. She is unable to say anything more. The hallucination begins to intimidate her._

"_These secrets you've been keeping… It's eating you up, isn't it? The department, the mission. Three whole years, and you couldn't tell anyone? Not even the love of your life? How sad." her hallucination self pauses._

You're a monster,_ she threatens in her mind. The hallucination version of herself laughs, and circles around her._

"_Honey, you just called yourself a monster," she ruefully grins – it heard her thoughts._

"_You are not me, nor will you ever be! I would never murder my family!" she argues. _

_But her response backfires._

"_JJ, I _am_ you. What you just witnessed was yourself executing your family. You want a way out? That is how. You are capable of doing this, JJ – you. These secrets… They've been eating you up alive. Do you really think your family will forgive you after this? They'll _hate_ you. _Abhor_ you. They will never want to see your face ever again, JJ, trust me. They'll wish they'd never met you. They'd be better off without you. You've put them through misery – this is the only way you can put them out of their misery – this… This is the only way out."_

No it can't be!_ She screams, in her thoughts. She finds herself conflicted – though this is a hallucination, it seems to make a little sense to her._

But I took an oath to protect this country – "I will support and defend the constitution…"

_The hallucination cuts in._

"_Yeah, but you also promised to never keep secrets from them again – and look where that's gotten you the last time. Spencer _resented_ you. What's he going to think this time, JJ? Do you really think he'll even consider forgiving you?"_

_She tears up – the hallucination is right. She saw how hurt he was – she remembered how angry he was, walking out on her in that precinct a little over two years ago. It hurt her, but she had no choice._

_But she was right – she couldn't put Spence through that again._

"_Yeah, I didn't think so."_

No! You're wrong! I'd rather kill myself than even _consider_ touching a hair on any of their heads. Get the hell away from me!

_However, the hallucination is unrelenting. It continues tormenting her in her mind. This entire hallucination blocks her grasp of reality – she is losing grips on reality, and her captor witnesses it. _

_He's done it._

_He has broken her._

* * *

AN: Hi guys! I really have no pre-planned material for this story so bear with me haha. I'm just making it up as I go. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter. Hopefully you sort of understand the angle I'm trying to get at here with how her captor managed to break her.  
AN2: I am also sticking with present tense because I suck at it so what better way to get better at it than to keep trying right?  
AN3: OH ALSO, if you're confused about the date... I'm assuming that JJ's kidnapping happens in real time, meaning her abduction/rescue happens on the same day it airs in real life - so yes, this story is placed in the future.


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